7/19/7:
Rejuvenated Bonds hits 752 and 753 "At 753, suddenly Bonds is
now two homers away from tying Aaron's Major League Baseball
career-best 755 and three away from passing him into first place on
the all-time list."

7/15/7:
Home Run chase turns eyes to Fairbanks “Nobody in our organization had a harsh word
to say about Barry Bonds,” Dennis said. “He was exemplary and he was
just an average college kid. He had a tremendous sense of humor, too.”

5/3/7:
Free Passes on Rise as Bonds Heats Up "San Francisco Giants slugger
Barry Bonds is at it again, terrorizing the National League on his way to
breaking Hank Aaron's career home run record, and he's starting to pay the
price. Opponents, fearing the return of Bonds' home run prowess, have
stopped pitching to him."

10/3/4:Boone on Bonds: Something Special"You're a star if you're on base .400," Boone said. "How about .600? You have a great, tremendous eye if you walk 100 times. Let me double that, and add another 25. It's numbers we've never seen. If you start breaking Babe Ruth's numbers, you're doing something pretty special. No one's ever walked the earth that can hit like that man." Bonds will blow away his own major-league record for highest on-base percentage (.582 in 2002). In fact, Bonds will now possess four of the top 11 seasons for OBP — his last four seasons, almost inarguably the best four-year stretch in baseball history."

8/31/4:
No debating it -- Bonds is NL MVP - "As Marlins manager Jack McKeon told reporters last week, "You can't tell me the Babe was any better than this guy. You can't tell me this guy isn't the best player in the history of the game."

11/14/3:
HR Run OK with Hank11/6/3:
The Inimitable Barry Bonds "Only one player in the entire history of Major League Baseball has ever finished a season with an OPS 500 points (or better) above the average of their league, for three years in a row. That player is Barry Bonds"

8/31:
Emotional Return: Homers in First Game Back (7 Behind Mays for Third All-Time) "Trainer Stan Conte took Bonds' pulse in the dugout. It was between 150 and 160 beats a minute. It should have been closer to 100 or 110. Conte suggested that Bonds come out of the game, and Bonds demanded to keep playing... It was Bonds' 40th homer -- one more than his dad's career high -- giving him seven seasons of 40 or more. That broke the club record of six, which belonged to Mays, his godfather."

8/22:
Move over Babe and Hank "The year after his spectacular 2001 season, Bonds and Aaron met to talk baseball at the Giants' spring training home in Scottsdale, Ariz. Bonds has grown up around greatness -- with his father, Bobby, and his godfather, Willie Mays, and many others -- but that spring in 2002 was the first time Aaron and the younger Bonds had had a meaningful talk. Aaron told Bonds that records were made to be broken. He told him that he had held the home run record long enough. Bonds was flabbergasted. "He told me," Bonds said at the time, "to get all I could get out of the game of baseball."

8/9: Baseball around the clock -
Richard Larson"The Panners' most famous roster addition for the World Series came in 1983 when they added Barry Bonds to the lineup. Bonds joined an outfield that already featured Oddibe McDowell and Shane Mack. Bonds batted .222 in six World Series games with the Panners as the team went 4-2 and came up shy of the title. Bonds had a double, walked three times, scored two runs, drove in two runs and stole four bases in five attempts."

2/19:
Candid about career and surgery "Maybe Tony Gwynn will let me be a hitting coach (at San Diego State)," Bonds said of the former San Diego Padres outfielder, who won eight NL batting titles. "Now I've got something he has."

550th -- August 27, 2001, off Kevin Appier, San Francisco at New York Mets

564th -- October 4, 2001, off Wilfredo Rodriguez, San Francisco at Houston, tying Mark McGwire for major league mark with 70 homers.

567th -- October 7, 2001, off Dennis Springer, San Francisco vs. Los Angeles, setting major league mark with 73 homers.

600th -- August 9, 2002, off Kip Wells, San Francisco vs. Pittsburgh

660th -- April 12, 2004, off Matt Kinney, San Francisco vs. Milwaukee, tying godfather Willie Mays for third on baseball's career list.

661st -- April 13, 2004, off Ben Ford, San Francisco vs. Milwaukee, passing Willie Mays for third on baseball's career list.

700th
-- Sept. 17, 2004, off San Diego's Jake Peavy, at San Francisco

714th
-- May 20, 2006, off Oakland's Brad Halsey, at Oakland, tied Babe Ruth
for second place on career list

715th
-- May 28, 2006, off Colorado's Byung-Hyun Kim , at San Francisco,
surpassed Babe Ruth to take sole possession of second place on career
list

750 -- June 29, 2007, off Livan
Hernandez

No. 751 -- (July 3) off Cincinnati's
Aaron Harang, at Cincinnati

No. 752 -- (July 19) off Chicago's
Ted Lilly, at Chicago

No. 753 -- (July 19) off Chicago's
Will Ohman, at Chicago

No. 754 -- (July 27) off Florida's
Rick VandenHurk, at home

No. 755 -- (Aug. 4) off San Diego's
Clay Hensley, at San Diego

No. 756 -- (Aug. 7) off Washington's
Mike Bacsik, at home

No. 757 -- (Aug. 8) off Washington's
Tim Redding, at home

No. 758 -- (Aug. 10) off
Pittsburgh's Matt Morris, at home

No. 759 -- (Aug. 15) off Atlanta's
Tim Hudson, at Atlanta

No. 760 -- (Aug. 18) off Florida's
Rick VandenHurk, at Miami

No. 761 -- (Aug. 24) off Milwaukee's
Chris Capuano, at home

No. 762 -- (Sep. 5) off Colorado's
Ubaldo Jimenez, at Colorado

It’s a lot tougher to hit when you go up to the plate knowing you might see one, two, three pitches to hit in a week. It’s not easy to hit that way. And if you see that pitch to hit, you might not hit it for a home run. If you only get a base hit, everybody boos you. --Mark McGwire

(Weight training) has made him extra-productive, in what probably should have been the twilight of his career . . . There’s nothing he can’t do on a baseball field. There’s no telling what he can do. --Mike Piazza

If he had been pitched to all year long, who’s to say he wouldn’t have hit 100 home runs? The guy is that good. --Jim Tracy

He’s been ridiculously consistent for 15 years. To put up those kinds of numbers year after year, now he’s 37 and only getting better. It’s like he’s in his prime. I hope I’m in that kind of shape when I’m 37. --Derek Jeter

He can do anything. Move a runner from second to third. Stolen base in a big situation? I’ll steal it for you. Home run? You got it. --Bobby Cox

No one’s quicker than him. You can’t sneak anything past him . . . He’s not a home run hitter. He’s just a great hitter who happens to be hitting a ton of homers. --Greg Maddux

He and Hank (Aaron) both have that recognition. They both recognize the difference between fastballs, curves, changeups and sliders really well. You’re not out in front or behind. You’re right there. --Dusty Baker

If you could explain it, I would have been in grooves like this a long time ago. You’re almost in shock. I come around and touch home plate and I’m in the dugout thinking, 'What did I just do?' You don’t know what to think. --Barry Bonds

In '98, (the record) was only 61. And then Mark McGwire came and hit 70 and that was like 'wow.' Now you see 73--that's unbelievable. --Sammy Sosa

Not a chance . . . I’m not Mark McGwire. I’m just not that powerful a hitter. Mark is so much stronger than I am. --Barry Bonds, June 21, 2001

I recruited Barry. I really knew him. But we had different requirements, and he didn’t get into USC. He was intelligent but didn’t want to do the work. They all [Bonds, Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson] could have been on the same team. --Former Southern California coach
Rod Dedeaux

His best attribute was confidence. What makes Barry special is he’s extremely strong mentally . . . He wasn’t as physical a player then, especially these last three years. He was a frail kid with a quick bat, 165-170 (pounds), max. You’re talking about a whole different animal now. --Former Arizona State teammate
Don Wakamatsu (85)

"He was more emotionally drained than anybody because he was going after the record, But that's the challenge of baseball: to come back emotionally. That was awesome. That was another big blow for us." - " Giants manager
Dusty Baker

Serra HS

"Barry showed his athletic abilities in
three sports while at Serra. Barry made the jump from freshman baseball
to the varsity as a sophomore and became a three year starter in center
field. Over his career Barry averaged .404 and hit .467 as a senior! His
total of 87 bases in a season is second in the school's record books. He
was a 2nd team All-WCAL selection as a sophomore and first team all
league as a junior and senior. For his outstanding career, Barry was
awarded All-American status in 1982. A second round draft choice of the
Giants in '82, Barry, instead, chose to attend Arizona State on a
baseball scholarship. Barry was a 3 year starter for the Sun Devils and
was named All-American as a junior before being the number one selection
of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1985. Barry became the first player in
major league history to hit 30 home runs and steal 50 bases in a season
in 1990. That same season he was the National League's Most Valuable
Player and narrowly missed repeating the award in 1991. Bonds played JV
football and varsity football as a junior where he was regarded as an
exciting receiver, but he decided to concentrate on basketball and his
baseball career as a senior. Barry was a two-year starter as a Padre
hoopster, earning All-WCAL first team honors as a senior when he helped
lead the 8-4 Padres to the WCAL playoffs. "

Seattle Mariners' Kazuhiro Sasaki, right, and San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds exchange greetings after the major league baseballers' 8-5 victory over their Japanese counterparts in the opening game of the eight-game U.S.-Japan All-star series at the Tokyo Dome indoor baseball stadium Friday night, Nov. 3, 2000. Sasaki made a homecoming appearance with a inning of perfect relief. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

San Francisco Giants outfielder Barry Bonds, left, and Yomiuri Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima have a chat before the opening game of the eight-game U.S.-Japan All-star series at the Tokyo Dome indoor baseball stadium Friday night, Nov. 3, 2000. The major league baseballers beat their Japanese counterparts 8-5. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi)

With 1990 Goldpanner Jason Giambi

Barry Bonds (83) Home run chase turns
eyes toward Fairbanks

July 16th, 2007

Â

Published July 12, 2007
By Danny Martin

The 2006 Alaska Goldpanners souvenir program is
very popular these days, simply because of one player on its cover -
Barry Bonds. The image of Bonds is juxtaposed with two other former
Goldpanners and current Major League Baseball Hall of Famers, Tom
Seaver and Dave Winfield.
It is, though, the appearance of a 19-year-old Bonds holding a bat
while wearing a red and gold No. 6 Alaska uniform in 1983 that leads
to Todd Dennis receiving e-mails requesting copies of the program.
Dennis, 35, is the Alaska Baseball League team’s operations manager,
coordinator of its Web site (www.goldpanners.com)
and the son of team general manager Don Dennis.

“Yes, we get several dozen requests of that
nature once the season is over,” Don Dennis, 67, said in a telephone
interview on Monday afternoon.

Those collectors will soon be clamoring, too, for
a copy of this year’s Goldpanners’ schedule card. The team’s 44
games are listed on the back, and on the front is that same image of
Bonds from almost a quarter century ago.

Rather than several dozen, the requests for the
2006 program and 2007 schedule card will probably reach the hundreds
to thousands this year because Bonds is on the verge of becoming the
all-time home runs leader in Major League Baseball.

The now 42-year-old left fielder for the San
Francisco Giants is five shy of surpassing the legendary Henry
Aaron, who delivered 755 career roundtrippers during a 22-year
career (1954-76) as a right fielder with the Milwaukee Braves,
Atlanta Braves and Milwaukee Brewers.

“Once the season is over and he (Bonds) becomes
the home run king, we’ll offer them online,” Dennis said of the
program and the schedule card, which for now is free at Growden
Memorial Park on days the Goldpanners are playing.

Long before he saw Bonds become a favorite of
memorabilia collectors, Don Dennis saw a slender teenager in 1983
who was “like any other young guy.”

“He was actually your average run-of-the-mill
guy,” Dennis continued.

Dennis noted, too, that Bonds fit in perfectly
with the Goldpanners.

“Nobody in our organization had a harsh word to
say about Barry Bonds,” Dennis said. “He was exemplary and he was
just an average college kid. He had a tremendous sense of humor,
too.”

Twenty-four summers ago, Barry Lamar Bonds wasn’t
chasing Hammerin’ Hank and he wasn’t alleged to have used
performance enhancing substances. Nor was he playing in a league
whose commissioner, because of those allegations, has yet to decide
if he’ll be in attendance when Bonds breaks what is arguably the
greatest record in professional sports.

“We’re very pro-Barry Bonds,” said Dennis, “and
we choose to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

The biggest things Bonds dealt with in the summer
of ‘83 were his classes at Arizona State University and playing with
the Goldpanners in a postseason-only stint.

Dennis had hoped to have Bonds for the ABL
regular season that year but he understood and respected a priority
of books before baseballs.

“His coaches wanted to be doubly and triply sure
that his (academic) eligibility would be good,” Dennis said.

Dennis, though, knew the type of player the
Goldpanners would get when Bonds eventually joined the team for the
now-defunct Alaska Baseball League State Tournament at Mulcahy
Stadium in Anchorage, and at the National Baseball Congress World
Series in Wichita, Kan.

From 1982 to 1990, Dennis lived in the offseason
in Tempe, Ariz., the home of Arizona State University, and he would
regularly watch Bonds play for the Sun Devils of the Pacific-10
Conference.

“You had to watch him for one inning or one game
â€¦ we’ve had a handful of those guys over the years and Barry was
one of them,” Dennis said.

Rather than play in the outfield, Bonds was a
first baseman for the Goldpanners, who that summer had what some
major league scouts dubbed “The Million Dollar Outfield” - future
major leaguers Mark Davis in left field, Oddibe McDowell in center
and Shane Mack in right. Bonds and McDowell were also Arizona State
teammates.

Bonds suited up but didn’t play in the ABL state
tournament. But he got his Goldpanners uniform dirty in six games in
Wichita, where Dennis and the rest of the Goldpanners organization
saw a glimpse of the future.

“He had all the instincts and speed and
quickness,” Dennis recalled. “He had tremendous bat control, which
he still has.”

Bonds batted .222 as a Goldpanner, getting four
hits in 18 at-bats with no home runs. He scored two runs, hit a
double, drove in two runs, struck out six times and - what sounds
like the Bonds of 2007 - got walked three times. He also stole four
bases in five attempts.

Wichita was also where the now-famous photo of
Bonds in his Goldpanners uniform was shot by a studio photographer.

“It has kind of become the standard young Barry
photograph,” Dennis said.

Bonds is on the verge of setting a standard for
career home runs in Major League Baseball.

“We’ve been big Barry Bonds supporters all along
and that accomplishment will be absolutely terrific,” Dennis said.
“Seaver and Winfield were two-year guys for the Goldpanners and
Barry’s time was much lighter, but his name and face are bigger than
Winfield’s and Seaver’s.

“Forty years from now, when you talk about home
runs, Barry Bonds’ name will be the first to crop up and you’ll have
to explain who Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron was.”

These days, Dennis doesn’t have to explain why
the 2006 Goldpanners souvenir program and 2007 schedule card are
very popular.